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Issue Analysis

Every Legislator Must Oppose the IRS Power Grab

The Obama Administration is trying to raise taxes without Congressional approval, and they really don't care what you think about it. Every legislator, whether state or federal, must oppose the usurpation of legislative prerogative. Citizens should oppose the move, which will raise their taxes without even a vote in Congress.

At National Review Online, Michael Cannon and Jonathan Adler write:

A president who says “I haven’t raised taxes” has authorized his Internal Revenue Service issue a “final rule” that will illegally tax some 12 million individuals, plus large employers, in as many as 40 states beginning in 2014. Oklahoma’s attorney general has asked a federal court to block this rule. Members of Congress have introduced legislation in both the House and the Senate to quash it.

As part of the PPACA, states are supposed to set up "exchanges". An exchange is a mechanism for selling insurance, typically with a web-based front end and swarms of bureaucrats and computers on the back end. There is considerable expense and effort required to set one up that complies with various laws and associated regulations.

States can set up their own, or the federal government will set one of for them.

But the PPACA says that federal subsidies will only be available in states that set up their own exchanges. The legislative history is clear: Congress intended that provision as an inducement for a state to set up its own exchange. Incapable for Constitutional reasons of simply telling states they must create exchanges, Congress created what it thought were incentives, tax credits for citizens of states that create exchanges.

Repeal advocates set upon a strategy of not implementing state-based exchanges. A number of good things should happen when states refuse to implement the exchange on their own. In the worst case, repeal opponents should have to reopen the law, giving repeal advocates the opportunity to make substantial changes to it.

There is, however, one weakness inherent in this strategy. It assumes that the Obama administration will obey the law. The plan will be difficult to implement if the President and his accomplices simply ignore the text of PPACA and illegally funnel tax credits and subsidies through federally-created exchanges. The past three years have certainly provided plenty of evidence that these people would not reject this course of action merely because it violates the law. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that it is precisely what they have decided to do. The IRS recently finalized a regulation that makes clear the administration's intention to provide premium assistance through federal as well as state-based exchanges.

Cannon and Adler again:

It is here that the IRS has gone rogue. The agency has announced that, despite the clear statutory language restricting tax credits to exchanges established by states, it will issue tax credits through federal exchanges. One can see why Oklahoma and the rest might be upset: By offering tax credits in states that opt not to create exchanges, the IRS is imposing taxes where Congress did not authorize them. This IRS rule will tax those 12 million low- and middle-income Americans, including 250,000 Oklahomans, contrary to the express language of the PPACA.

The IRS power grab is a beyond cynical. It's a declaration by the Obama Administration that they do not care what the law is, they will do what they want.

Every legislator at every level should be asked whether they support full repeal or not, and whether they support a job-killing state-based exchange.

How far can Obama be successful in raising tax without the approval of the congress? I do not think such a thing will ever work out. Is there anyone else who feel the same way?And has there really been a declaration by the Obama administration that they do not care about the law?<a href="http://www.howtowindows.com">howtowindows.com</a>

Breaking with the Trump administration, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ecently announced that he intends to protect the health insurance company subsidies that had previously been a part of ObamaCare. This is all in line with the Senate Majority Leader’s desire to stabilize the market which he believes is “collapsing” (in large part thanks to ObamaCare). Though reform in this field is absolutely necessary, doling out handouts to well connect insurance companies who helped write the bill are only going to help prevent necessary reform and continue a crony mindset in Washington that needs to go the way of the dinosaur.

Section 702, the controversial aspect of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which allows for mass surveillance of American Citizens, is set to phase out at the end of 2017. Some in congress have introduced measures that would make Section 702, in its current form, permanent law and avoid any reforms which might grant Americans greater privacy protections. Here are 10 reasons why that is an absolutely horrific idea.

Without any significant legislative victories and a frustrated base, Senate Republican leadership and most rank-and-file members of the Republican conference need to take a good, long look in the mirror and ask themselves this question: "What are we doing here?"

Reports continue to come in about the results of implementing ObamaCare. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report on the effectuated enrollment, or in other words selected a plan for the first two months of the year and paid their first month’s premium of ObamaCare. The results were admittedly rather surprising as they did not meet the expectations of where the program was supposed to be at this point.

America’s welfare system is not working. The War on Poverty has failed miserably , and few in Congress have even broached the topic of serious welfare reforms. Members of the House Freedom Caucus have led the way in the this Congress, but, aside from their efforts at real conservative reform, there is little traction for those seeking to make welfare sustainable. Luckily for Americans, Congress doesn’t control their fate, they do.